Sustainability has moved from a buzz-word to a set of practical principles for the long-term operations of our society, our businesses and our lives. A key part of this conversion is the creation of new products that promote sustainable practices and the evolution of existing companies to adopt these practices. Behind all of these sustainability options lies a wide range of scientific tools, principles and discoveries, many that draw on the latest advances in biology. In this course, we will examine both the science behind sustainability and the scientific discoveries that will become the next generation of exciting new products.
This course is designed for both science majors and non-science majors with an interest in this area. It will take a particular focus on the emerging technologies that will create a revolution in business and that are emerging to be the basis of entrepreneurial new companies. Many of the most promising technologies have as their base the tools of the genomic revolution with the same scale of opportunities for sustainability as they have begun to deliver in medicine. These biological innovations represent one of the most scalable, promising sets of discoveries and areas of sustainability research and will be a key focus of the course.
If you are excited about this future, want to start your own company around the next great sustainable technology or want to focus your own research to produce the discovery that will create new markets and a new set of environmental solutions, this course will provide the intellectual basis and practical lessons that will guide you in that direction. In addition to more traditional materials, the course will include guest lectures by leaders in science and business with practical experience in every facet of this value chain.
